Here are the top 25 shortstop prospects. To some degree, Manny Machado ranked first by default. Machado is less valuable in fantasy because he is at least three years away, but he still ranked first because there was no upper-level prospect whose performance justified a #1 ranking.
1. Manny Machado—Orioles
2. Grant Green—Athletics
3. Nick Franklin—Mariners
4. Jose Iglesias—Red Sox
5. Dee Gordon—Dodgers
6. Jurickson Profar—Rangers
7. Christian Colon—Royals
8. Danny Espinoza—Nationals
9. Adeiny Hechavarria—Blue Jays
10. Wilmer Flores—Mets
11. Drew Cumberland—Padres
12. Zack Cozart—Reds
13. Matt Lipka—Braves
14. Hak-Ju Lee—Cubs
15. Hector Gomez—Rockies
16. Chris Owings—Diamondbacks
17. Tim Beckham—Rays
18. Jonathan Villar—Astros
19. Mychal Givens—Orioles
20. Tony Wolters—Indians
21. Junior Lake—Cubs
22. Edward Salcedo—Braves
23. Derek Dietrich—Rays
24. Eduardo Escobar—White Sox
25. Junior Arias—Reds
Future Players: Alex Guerrero (Cuba), Christian Lopes (California HS), Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Japan…currently posted).
Was just reading about Gustavo Pierre, and he’s an interesting candidate. Every report talks about him having awesome tools, so he seems like a guy who could easily move up the ratings. The weak spot is his statline is not impressive thus far, but there are some encouraging signs in the improvements made between the first and send season. The increasing walk totals are encouraging (still a ways to go) and despite the batting average being low, a solid number of his hits are going for extra bases. He’s definitely a guy I’ll keep an eye on for next season.
Some other names to watch:
Brandon Crawford, SF- Great defense, some pop, but low contact
Mycal Jones, ATL- Nice pop and speed combo, ahead of Lipka, for now
Gustavo Pierre, TOR-Still young and raw, but oozes tools
Great additions. The A’s made a great move signing Yordy Cabrera. I ended up listing him at third base, and he’ll definitely be ranked. DeJesus/Nunez might have been better selections than some of the younger guys I listed b/c they could both theoretically make an impact next year.
Vollmuth is an interesting guy for next year’s draft because you don’t see many shortstops with his combination of size, speed, and hitting ability. I’m less familiar w/ Phil Evans…just did a search and saw he’s a high school player who seems like a lock to go first round.
Even though he is FAR away, one high school player I almost listed was Addison Russell from Florida. I ended up not listing him because he’s not even draft eligible until 2012, but this report was really impressive.
http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/8/16/1625615/2010-under-armour-all-american
Yordy Cabrera, Ivan DeJesus Jr., Eduardo Nunez, B.A. Vollmuth, Phil Evans
Thanks. SS was one of the toughest positions to rank. It’s a deep position with about 10-12 prospects I would probably consider top 100, but on the flip side, there is nobody I would consider a top 25 prospect in fantasy baseball.
There were several really encouraging players who didn’t get ranked (Gregorius, Osvaldo Martinez, Luis Sardinas, Dickie Thon, Freddie Galvis, Gio Mier, Cito Culver, Marcus Littlewood, etc), and it’s really speculative whether Edward Salcedo and Junior Arias will be more successful than the guys we cut.
But we tried to have a good mix of high-upside and more advanced prospects w/ a lower ceiling.
Very good list, it looks as perfect as it could possibly be. I like seeing Machado #1 as he’s on my dynasty team! Good work.